Leicester City steal a march on rivals in race for Jack Hobbs - or do they?

Leicester City are the latest Championship club to be interested in a move for Jack Hobbs, who is also apparently wanted by Reading FC and Wigan Athletic.

The Jack Hobbs saga has been spun out for the whole of January. The central defender had been on loan at NottinghamForest from Hull City all season, and it looked as if a permanent transfer would be completed this month.

Forest had even agreed a deal with Hull for Hobbs to move on a permanent deal for a fee of around £1m. It seemed they had beaten off competition from Wigan Athletic and Reading. The deal never actually went through though, and Hobbs remained a loan player at The City Ground.

Due to an injury to James Chester, Steve Bruce then decided to recall Hobbs to act as cover. Forest fans were confused as just ten days ago it looked as if Hobbs was their player.

Just yesterday BBC Sport reported that Hobbs was again set for a permanent move away from the KC Stadium, but not to Nottingham Forest. Instead it looked as if he would be going to Wigan or Reading.

"He has permission to speak to them so it's up to him to sort out now," Bruce told BBC. "The ball is in his court and we'll see where he goes before Friday."

However in another remarkable twist in the whole Jack Hobbs transfer saga, Sky Sports have reported that his former club have launched a bid for him. They suggest that Championship leaders Leicester City are now in for the centre-back. Hobbs played for The Foxes between 2008 and 2011 before joining Hull.

Josh McLoughlin

Josh is a 21-year-old aspiring Football journalist based in Preston/Manchester and a huge Preston North End fan. His own blog aloadofballs1.wordpress.com takes a look at many Football issues from across the world and has attracted views from all over the world, from Nepal to Peru.